A patient cure

Andrew Lansley stands on the concourse of Euston station cracking jokes with a gaggle of civil servants. Lansley, who must be at least 6ft3, towers over the group. He looks relaxed. The contrast with how he looked a few months ago could not be sharper. Then, the Health Secretary seemed to be carrying all the troubles of the coalition’s NHS reforms on his shoulders. He had developed a stoop and he would talk to you with his arms crossed. But now his controversial, much revised bill is almost through parliament. What he calls his period in ‘purgatory’ is nearly over.

For a Cabinet minister, Lansley is surprisingly free from ego. As we get on the train, he expresses surprise that I don’t mind making a journey just for the sake of interviewing him. Most of his colleagues would consider this standard procedure.

Once we get moving, I ask him whether, despite the ramifications of the autumn statement, the NHS budget will still be immune from cuts.